Main menu

Monthly Archives: June 2013

Post navigation

Today we had Nina over to show her the house and she was pretty keen to get in to some demolition, so we let her loose on the downstairs area. This room we are doing a quick tidy up with a coat of paint and floor boards so we have a relatively fresh room to sleep in when we first move in, until our bedroom is ready.

So we started with this room:

Carefully removed the skirtings first:

Then Nina got hold of this:

And this happened:

I also had a bit of a go at it:

Once the wardrobe was out, we began to remove the disgusting orange carpet only to uncover some tiles which look like they are brand new!

It was a pretty fun day and anyone who messes with me… I have Nina on my team, watch that video of her with that sledge hammer… be afraid! After photos coming soon!

Today we had to take on probably one of the toughest, most risky projects, we had a 9 metre support beam lifted in to a hole in the side wall of the house. As we wish to remove a semi-supporting wall we need to add a beam in the attic to support the roof, otherwise we might wake up one night with the roof on us… so here is the story…

On Friday, this truck from Beijer Byggmaterial (shameless advertising for Sweden’s best building supplies store with the most awesome employees ;-)):

Delivered us this beam…

Unfortunately that truck was too small to lift the beam, as it needed to be lifted around 20 metres from the road to the house and up around 12 metres which a standard crane truck can’t do… So we called in the big guys. Per and his somewhat larger crane truck…

At this point I left the site and let David take over. I felt like this was dangerous and risky and was really glad to get out of there! Here is what happened next….

Some precision crane driving (I think it took only 2 attempts), lifted the beam flat to the hole which Fredrik had cut from the facade.

David was outside guiding it in to Fredrik who was in the attic pulling the 180kg beam in to the attic.

All three of them then pulled the full beam in to the attic where we will soon secure it in place so we can remove the wall.

I then could return to the site to see the beam safely in the attic ready for my new floorplan to start to come in to shape.

Today we worked a bit more clearing out the garden before it began to pour rain. Fredrik even let me use the big grass trimmer… he was a bit hesitant because it is actually bigger than I am. After the rain started we headed inside and started to take down some of the wooden paneling etc in preperation for removing the wall this week. Tomorrow we will begin the stressful task of having a crane lift the supporting beam in to the attic to support the roof after the wall is removed. Photos of that to come… wish us luck! 🙂

Now that we have the time, we are finally starting to take steps to get the garden under control. I told a lot of people that the garden was crazy but I don’t think anyone really understood exactly what I meant, many commented ‘I love gardening’, then when they see it they mostly seem shocked and say, ‘Oh, wow this really IS crazy’. I guess you could more accurately describe it as a jungle. The old man who lived there loved his garden but obviously he hasn’t been able to work in the garden for at least 10 years.

We have really started to see progress now, which feels awesome! Reassuring that this big renovation project is possible. Our neighbours have also been stopping by to say how glad they are to see that someone is finally clearing the jungle. One neighbour said she hasn’t seen the house in years.

So what have we done?

1) Cleaned out and painted the garage. We need to store a lot of tools and deliveries in here, so we thought this was a good place to start! We put in a new concrete floor and and gave it one rough coat of paint.

Before Photos:

After Photo:

2) Taken the ivy down from the walls of the house and little outside area. SHIT JOB! That stuff is evil! I used to think it was pretty but it really is just a weed. It leaves all of the Arial roots on the wall which are pretty much impossible to take off. We started today to get these off with the high pressure hose, it doesn’t get them all but it makes a difference. I will put up some after photos when it is done.

3) Trimmed back bushes, cut grass and chopped down about 12 trees… that is right 12! Not all small either. The difference is astounding. So much more light and everything feels so much bigger.